The present invention relates generally to surgical instruments and more particularly to a disposable gingival grafting knife.
Conventional gingival grafting methods require a scalpel and a unigraft knife or motor-driven mucotome to harvest a graft. Using a scalpel is excessively time consuming and often provides uneven graft width and thickness. Use of a unigraft knife or mucotome is expensive and carries a substantial risk of cross contamination.
The invention solves or substantially reduces in critical importance problems with prior art instruments and methods by providing a disposable sterilizable gingival grafting knife which can be used to easily and effectively harvest a graft of uniform width and thickness and be discarded safely and cost effectively without risk of cross contamination. The invention comprises a narrow blade, sharpened on one side, formed to the desired shape of the graft and embedded into the end of a handle to define preselected width and thickness for the graft. A detachable tissue graft receptacle is attachable to the back of the knife near the blade for catching and holding the harvested graft.
The invention is ideal for soft tissue grafts and is valuable to dentists, periodontists, oral surgeons and implantologists.
It is therefore a principal object of the invention to provide an improved surgical knife.
It is another object of the invention to provide a surgical instrument for harvesting a tissue graft of uniform width and thickness.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a disposable periodontal knife.
These and other objects of the invention will become apparent as a detailed description of representative embodiments proceeds.